EchoStar plays great spectrum hand after likely 'open RAN' bluff

Charlie Ergen is reputed to be a mean card player. For years, EchoStar's inscrutable founder was the subject of intense speculation about what he would do with his huge holdings of spectrum, the invisible vehicle for any wireless signal. The answer became apparent when Ergen staked some of his frequency cards on the construction of a fourth US mobile network based on open radio access network technology, touted as a low-cost alternative to a traditional deployment. Or did it? About five years since EchoStar-owned Dish Network began that project, with rollout incomplete, Ergen has in recent weeks negotiated two giant spectrum deals. Was it, then, a strikingly bad bet by the typically shrewd poker player? Hamid Akhavan, EchoStar's CEO, seems eager to present his company as the victim of a hostile Federal Communications Commission, the dealer at the table. But others are unconvinced Ergen was ever serious about open RAN. "He was never going to build Dish," said Earl Lum, the founder of analyst company EJL Wireless Research. "The only reason he built it was because the FCC was going to take all the spectrum away. He's actually done what he intended to do all along, which was to bank and make a ton of money on the spectrum."